Finances, Investing, and Lifestyle All At Once – Billy Brown

Billy Brown  00:00

Once you’re really good at what you’re unconsciously competent at, stick with that and then hire out in search other people that are highly paid professionals, and there’s a price for admission. Once you pay that price for admission, the world has opened up to you. And once you get past that very entry, then the world unfolds for you in many, many ways. Welcome to the passive income brothers

 

Greg Lyons  00:19

podcast.

 

Tim Lyons  00:20

Here we take the fear out of real estate investing using real life stories of everyday successful investors. Let’s go. Welcome to another episode of the passive income brothers podcast. My name is Tim Lyons and today I am joined by none other than my brother, Greg, how you doing today, buddy?

 

Greg Lyons  00:35

Tim? Can you say season two? Yeah, episode number 53. We’re just gonna call it season two. There’s nothing special about it’s not like this is survivor or anything. But I can’t believe that we’ve been at this for a year. And I’m just so happy with all the different people that we’ve been able to meet along the journey. Hearing from listeners getting five star reviews, any sort of review is fantastic for us to end, this has been such a great journey. And I’m so fired up to kick off season number two, baby, as

 

Tim Lyons  01:09

I reflect back to a year ago when we were trying to get this thing off the ground, and we couldn’t agree on times, we couldn’t agree on anything. We do want to start this thing and now 30,000 downloads later in one year. It’s incredible. And I’m just so happy that we finally started. So the

 

Greg Lyons  01:29

limiting beliefs, the limiting beliefs were far and wide. So we don’t need to rehash that. Let’s just move on.

 

Tim Lyons  01:35

So today we have a great guest. He’s a personal friend of ours. And we’ve gotten to know him over the years. On our journey on our real estate journey on our personal development journey. Billy and I are part of several masterminds together. And it seems that as big as the world is, when you’re in the mastermind space and personal development space, it can be very small sometimes. But anyway, Billy is a former college golfer semi pro, I think and he’s done all sorts of great things in real estate and business. So without further ado, I want to bring to you Billy Brown. I don’t tell you, Billy.

 

Billy Brown  02:10

Jim, great to be here. And great to be here. You and Greg, this is phenomenal. I mean, one, I happened to be poor. That conversation early on, we were thinking about starting this thing so honored to be finally, on your podcast. It’s rainy season two, it’d be the first guest on season two. So kudos to you guys for doing it. And now you’re actually making meat contemplate going maybe I should do my own podcast here. So absolutely. Absolutely. And others. I know a few people so we can have fun. But anyway, thanks for having me on your show. And just looking forward to conversation and how to help out your listeners.

 

Tim Lyons  02:42

So Billy, you have done a lot of things. So why don’t you take the listeners through a little bit of your background? And then bring them into present day and we’ll take it from there. Yeah,

 

Billy Brown  02:53

it’s kind of fun when people ask you what’s the short introduction for Billy as like? Yeah, there’s really not one. So that’s why you guys got the DA This is Billy brother, this guy. What does he deserve to be on the show? Was he doing well? I’ve been a residential lender turned investor bad investor turned. I didn’t know what this thing called commercial lending is do now I’m a commercial loan broker and thought leader in the industry and found out about syndications. We syndicate an apartment complex and an office complex. And then now founder and CEO is this thing called the golf sanctuary. And people are listening going, what the hell? How does that all tie together? Are you looking at like what’s going on? Yeah, a little bit, most entrepreneurs are, but if you will get back out and zoom out. And we’re gonna tie all this together of how it all fits. And the first thing I want your listeners to understand is you understand this to be around me, there is a method of the madness. And once you understand how to create value, and how to syndicate and how to be around, people actually add value, the world is your oyster. And you can take advantage these opportunities that others can’t, it doesn’t have to just be real estate, does that mean just sell store doesn’t have to just be whatever, you can do this with anything? Absolutely anything. And for me, it was solving problems for myself along the way to the point now which we talked about as our mastermind to creating and and then meaning, creating a lifestyle and investing for a lifestyle and bringing people along with me versus investing to then have a retirement whatever, 2030 years from now, what usually never happens. We’re doing it now as part of it. And that’s so much fun. Billy,

 

Greg Lyons  04:40

that’s interesting. I think you hit the nail right on the head for a lot of entrepreneurs out there and a lot of people that intend to get into real estate, you were solving problems for yourself. And that is kind of one of the great paths to entrepreneurship to real estate investing. And as we look back on all that Different things that you’ve done, a lot of times people come jack of all trades, master of none. But you are one of those very rare people that you’ve been able to master many, whether it’s golfing, being a loan broker, syndicator, starting a business. And that’s what kind of really drew Tim and I to you tend to the people in your network. And it’s the aggregate of experiences that you have, that is able to add value to people. So as you look back from the single mindedness of being wanting to be a professional golfer, what’s kind of helped you along the way to kind of navigate your kind of business experiences.

 

Billy Brown  05:37

So the first thing is that one, thank you for the compliment via Master I don’t feel like I am triggered a thought there of the difference between a master and a novice is the master has failed more times than analysing contemplated. And that goes back to why people perceive me as a master, it’s because I feel the whole thing, watts. So for those that are like, the University of Leeds, and what’s so special about him, you know, his worlds are what know, the reason I’m a master is because I’ve got the broken nose, the bloody lip, the scar tissue, and all that because I fail, and I fail, often I fail fast. And that’s what makes great entrepreneurs, great runners is they’re not scared of failing, they want to fail, often. Just never twice, the same way they’re going to continue to fail is to find those ways that don’t work. Because eventually you find a way to do work. And that’s what I’ve done in golf. So I’ve done in commercial level one investing, but commercial lending as well. We know all the ways loans get turned down to why projects fail. So I taught a course on it. That goes back to this. And that’s a I’m not trying to sell promoter. I’m just asking people this question here. Whenever they asked me like, what makes you special about the lending side, your lending business that we still have is? Well, first off, who taught you how to borrow money. So think about that, as far as the even after the university debt is part of our society. And I’m sure you guys have gotten it. So fiat currencies and all that central bank, digital currency all this world, and what is money currency? Well, our financial system is built on debt. If you try to get out of debt, you’ll fail. Once you understand how to get into debt, and did it correctly, the right way. You succeed exponentially. So it goes back to a question I asked anybody have what makes you special as it well, we know how to get people in depth right way. And we know how to maximize profit through this tool called debt. And we know who the right players are and how to interview them and make sure that is a our clients are getting firm yeses and commitment letters, not just term sheets. So yeah, that’s a whole the Masters thing. It’s the same thing on anything else we do is that we learn how to ask the right questions. And that’s where the wisdom wise for most people is not the words that you say, but the questions that

 

Tim Lyons  07:56

I love that. And I actually want to really dive in and lean into that failure. And that theory is right now, because fear is out there right now. Right? We are anxiously awaiting the Fed meeting the FOMC meeting in two weeks, right? And what’s the market doing? We’re shining versus the year end people have money on the sidelines. You know, people don’t know what to do, right? And nobody wants to fail. I mean, raise your hand if you want to fail out there. Right? Nobody is raising their hand. But as an entrepreneur, Pastor, well, as a confident entrepreneur and a confident investor, you know that failure is not just failure and take your ball and go home. It is tuition. It’s learning how to course correct, it’s learning how to not do the same thing twice to be a better investor a better business person. So right now, I think it’s very relevant. So Billy, I mean, people right now, we talked on our last podcast last week about people want the event, they want the Bitcoin billionaire, they want the lottery ticket, they want the short thing. And unfortunately, in investing, especially for passive income, there is no short thing out there. I mean, if there is I haven’t really found it unless you want to do CDs at the bank or Treasury bonds, something like that. But then the risk reward obviously, the profile is such that you can get 3% And if you’re happy with that, and that’s fine. But really, how do you wrap your head around the fear and failure but taking the action either get started investing, whether it’s real estate or otherwise, and then keep on moving the ball forward, especially in a time like this?

 

Billy Brown  09:29

Oh, well, I think you have to in a time like this, he had to keep on going forward and like it’s been if you’re depending on who you’re asking, it’s either recession coming or stagflation. We’re likely Stagflation is my bet. I think there’s gonna be more millionaires made in the next two years than the last 10 years combined for those that know how to go do this. And then what to go look for. And I’m gonna get this quote, except that encourages that lack of fear courage is actually is taking action instead. I know your fear. And fear, uncertainty, doubt is what’s the news media and no one else is actually clamoring upon? Well, you can’t buy one, don’t buy into it, you don’t have to buy what you’re selling, you don’t have to, for us, I get excited, because the Fed is going to move the needle through your cost of debt one more time, maybe two. And that’s going to level off and back to a 2015 2016 time period, when things are gonna level up, again, are starting to go up again. And those people like oh, my gosh, the world is ending. The easy investments because they got the time that right, they’re gonna get washed out. But people that invest in fundamentals, and another don’t care what your asset is, invest in the fundamentals, you can be fine. And the fundamentals are just like, just whatever it is, we’re in asset industry, it’s, the fundamentals are being wiser with your money, plan a cash flow, they’re rewarding our investors, and knowing who you serve, and why. And I think the last one is the key for anyone out there looking at the past and investments like, who you serve, and why. Because if you know that, that’s your TrueNorth. And if that’s, if it’s a one and done, it’s just a transactional type of deal for your apartment is like, Oh, we’re gonna flip this apartment because the market is rising, and we’re gonna get to make this deal killing and all of a sudden, well, the tide has flipped. That’s not fundamentals. That’s just, that’s the lottery that’s gambling. So people, I even Greg, but no one of us know, fundamentals with sponsors that know the fundamentals. You know, yeah, it’s boring. But consistency is what builds wealth. Every now and then a basic basic, basic basic home run, is keeping it as base, it’s, and it’s not. And the cool thing is, those base sets get bigger, they build on each other, you know, they’re not just always a little small, they get bigger even like hit by trajectory on the other investor trajectory, what they’ve done to level up and rise up. And there’s bumps along the way. But the consistency, there is what you’re looking for, for your returns. And it doesn’t matter what you’re doing any kind of job or whatever, if you’re doing this passively, trying to find a place to go put your money, that’s going to beat inflation, it’s going to be there for the long term. And it’s there’s so much out, there’s so much noise, there’s so much noise and, and I’m glad you guys are trying to cut through this. And I’ll say it this way. There’s so much noise and everything. They say in the fog of war, you don’t know who’s winning or losing. That’s actually by design and the economy. Because it’s easy to get people’s money out from their pockets and stool them, whatever it is, he was looking to TV and watch what they’re trying to sell. You

 

Greg Lyons  12:41

know, I was gonna say, Billy, it’s so true. It’s like when you cut through that noise, and you’re building relationships for the long term, you’re investing on the fundamentals. Now is the great time to buy real estate just like yesterday was it just like tomorrow we’ll be sitting on the sidelines, waiting is not going to do it. When you’re investing for the right reasons with the right people. All the do the Tom Dick And Harry’s that got into Tim and I’ve talked about this a lot of time Dick and Harry that got into real estate in the last three years to make a buck. Because it was easy, and the money was easy. You don’t want to have your money with those folks right now. But like the consistent folks that are doing it, because we again, Tim and I, when we invest someone’s money for them, it’s we want to be invested in their money for the next 2030 years. We don’t want to invest it for the next three to five years. And taking that fear out of it is really important. And I think over your career, you’ve taken fear and just kind of crumpled it up throwing it in the wastebasket. And it just went, a lot of us get over the hurdle of being a real estate investor. You’ve gotten over the hurdle of being a syndicator a real estate investor, a loan broker, and then you kind of went even outside of that and started something called the golf sanctuary. And earlier this year, this fall, Tim and I think that was in September, Tim, we had an opportunity to visit the golf sanctuary in the Nashville area. We’re blown away by the food number one, the food, the beverage, the golf and the people that you have there. Can you explain to people how the golf sanctuary came about and a little bit about it? And how you really stepped outside your comfort zone to create this? Oh,

 

Billy Brown  14:19

God, I mean, there’s the cupboards out I was like three zip codes away. We’re just living in this perpetual like, What the hell am I doing? But it’s like there’s no playbook for this. So first thing is awkward Aaron Rodgers all years like you guys know, there’s usually no playbook for this. syndicating investing all that there’s a little bit of a playbook. So when big I mean I saw how many p&l syndications all this you know I can do it apartment syndication in my sleep. It’s so easy, but I get a little bored like that doesn’t get me excited. Again this this ties with a golf sanctuary because I’m new meaning and it wasn’t that I was like, you know add. It was like this doesn’t serve me doing another apartment syndication. If I’ve done one or doing an office indication does a survey and I’ll back out tell you why it served me that you should do the first one. Well, the first one is complete and utter pride because I saw idiots that I knew couldn’t even spell p&l. Do that since the flooding joke there Can you spell p&l doing syndications, making a lot of money on like, you don’t know one Jack crap thing about this and you’re doing what’s hobby. And I’m in an industry so I was like, I want to do one. So actually did one as you can see the whole story behind that on a whole other episode. And so I did the the syndication and one was about syndications. Like, one I was actually been doing this my entire life and I getting paid for it. And I get a piece of it, because oh yeah, tell me Greg, you guys know Tim’s got money. Greg’s got the deal. Yes, Paul did the loan. Well, guess what never happened. It never came back to me that alone, kind of idiot can failure. So I figured out how to tie it all together and go oh, actually get paid for my efforts. So we actually were in a little bit of need because of our medical expenses, because of course, my daughter. So we actually use that acquisition fee to flip our balance sheet paid off a whole bunch of debt. Now the asset. Second one was the office and it wasn’t want to go buy an office, we actually had a duplex or something like that we’re selling and in a place to do 1031 Show you guys do lots of dirty ones. And it wasn’t a whole lot. So we were thinking oh yeah, we’ll do autonomous buried by short term rental, her hometown pays for vacation that the air and then make less money. Well, me being me going there’s nothing there to go by. It makes the financial sense p&l To understand the financials, wiki, I’ll loop that I saw this office complex. There was a triple net lease by a multinational CPA for what well hello there, sexy, I don’t want to get to know you. So we brought in so we did our syndication and then brought in five others with us are 10, three, one, Brian and five others with us. And now he had his office complex in LA pays for what time is plenty for vacation for about pays $5 private schools as a tax write off, still. So solving a problem. So get back to you, as you guys are hearing this, the investing to then now started learning how to invest for and so he got the cash flow and tax write offs now, and vacations. And then in the middle of the shoulder surgery recovery. That’s when I came up with a gold sanctuary. Because I was tying in syndication real estate dollars, because I want to play more golf, the food was not even on the radar and thinking about that came later and then want to place to basically have all my meetings and have all the people that I needed to go help want to serve in one place. So create a playbook sandbox for him. And so now I get to play more golf. I have members in all the private clubs here that I can go access basically, anytime, all class food, and some basically my own, in essence mastermind around me, because they’re all my members. So that continuity, flipping the script of creating an investment around this. I mean, I won’t say it was more accident, and I stumbled upon it, that it was intentional. But once I figured it out, it became very intentional. I was like, Oh my gosh, is almost unconscious brilliance, actually did this. But it’s it all ties together and that arc of creating a lifestyle and bringing people along with us and rewarding them at the same time. Financially, as well as everything here. That’d be great stewards of our time and money. So who wouldn’t answer your question there?

 

Tim Lyons  18:28

Yeah, Billy. I mean, what I love about that story is that, you know, look, you took a bunch of things you love, right? The finance the real estate and off and put them at all one. Investment Vehicle? Lifestyle. Yeah, it’s a lifestyle that you kind of leave that you live every day. Right? So, so people who didn’t understand what Billy just said, right? I mean, on a syndication side, Billy is the general partner, he put the deal together, right? He got the site, he got the very expensive golf machines, the food and beverage, the personnel, he got everything together. And then he needed to fund it. Right. So he did a syndication and he put it out to investors, and said, Hey, look, you can go invest your extra capital in a ETF in the stock market and are a single family and multifamily and this indication anywhere you want. Or you can do this private placement with me, right? This is what I’m doing this the business model that I’m doing. So it’s just another way that people’s eyes are opened up to what’s available to them. If you were floating and Billy circle, you would know that he has been working on this for a couple of years. And you would have had an opportunity maybe to do something with Billy so it’s really thinking outside the box, right? I really think in this period of volatility Within equities and bonds, the bonds are having one of the most awful years in a very, very long time. Right so those on fixed incomes, they’re gonna have a tough time this year and probably going forward right? So when this is what really got got me so excited about real estate and passive investing. Because listen, everybody knows by now I’m a New York City firefighter or now retired er, nurse, right? I wasn’t coming from this great place of sitting on paper stacks where I just had money to throw around. But I was intentional. I got educated, I surrounded myself with the people like other with the likes of Billy and others. And I found out what’s available to meet, to do to invest in how do I get a line with those that are doing the thing that I want to do, I want to be able to raise capital, right? I want to be able to be a general partner in deals. So getting back to what you said before Bill, you said something about the master has failed a lot more than the novice has even contemplated. And immediately My mind went back to the Man in the Arena, I forget who we brought that one up. But the men in the arena story, and I just told that story to my daughter, Madison this week about the spectator versus the Man in the Arena and taking the action, right. And it’s so true. It’s like there’s a common thread that comes through all of our guests, right? They starting point A, they couldn’t even see point like F. And they went through all these different different points in their lives. And they come out on top right? So Billy came, take a couple of minutes, maybe and just explain to the listeners what it was that made you want to be an investor. And you said you call yourself a bad investor in the beginning, right? So active versus passive. But yeah, I’ll give you the open lane just to kind of riff on whatever you think about active passive, where you start, where are you now stuff like that?

 

Billy Brown  21:39

Yeah, so the I mean, I always wanted to be had a passive income, mainly because it is a little deeper here, but I want to go down this but my dad was very wealthy one time they lost it all. I mean, everything and then his health. And then as part of the end like he was a workaholic, and then lost it all and sort of a six and family went bankrupt in the early 90s. And then just lost his mojo and got out of heart failure than cancer and die in 2013. There was never that there’s only trips he took last few years of his life was down at MD Anderson. Done, Houston. That’s all I do. So we live for sure. Because I didn’t want to be financially ruined. I have no health. So I was very intentional about whatever I can do Pasolini come to me, that’s what I want to go do. So real estate was the easiest thing for me to understand. So like, you know, follow the footsteps of my mentors. And just by happenstance, again, it could be like probably the law of attraction. I actually shared a house with a lady who’s actually now very dear mentor of mine. And she kicked me out of the house to go buy this other house and started house hacking. You guys know that as you buy a house and round the room, and they’re not a part of it, and that creates income, and then you go do it again. So that was the start. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I just listened to her advice and went forward. So but we had a buy in duplex after that, and then triplex think it’s quiet. So that’s the cycle. But at one time, we had all six doors vacant at one time, and I was about ready to sit on fire. That’s why somebody’s doing a bad because I was still managing to screen people all the time. And when they like, I can step out BS all the time. Like, I know how to do this, there’s no, there’s no reason to hire anyone else. Failure more, hire a professional hire professional, higher visual higher production, what and that is the number one thing about their hire a professional and not an IT professional to the best of the best, because they always will deliver more than you paid for. So whatever you if you’re trying to skimp on something and don’t hire the best. That’s why our lending side like we are the best, we charge more than anyone else. Because we give more, we add way more value than we’re going to charge you trust me, we will add to our network experience knowledge all that world. Same thing here. They all thinks we’re the justification of dues is like it’s minimal. It’s like there’s no once you’re in your EC, there’s how much value there is. But yeah, and that’s a poorly acid pool and I want that passive income. And it wasn’t passive. active investing is not passive income. It’s a job. It is an absolute job. So you read or learn pretty quickly. What are you good at Wait, I get that I’m terrible with managing terrible and I don’t get to do it. Well handed off somebody else’s when I did that, it became a lot easier. But still the smaller the project the bigger the headaches. So to get rid of those and leveled up, but yeah, just think in your own world here of what you’re really good at what’s your expert? What’s you’re unconsciously competent at? Stick with that and then hire out find and sort out search other people that are highly paid professionals in the areas you want to go be in. And that world wants you to enter that world and there’s a price for admission. This is not free. Once you pay that price for admission, the world has opened up to you. There’s a tuition like you say. And once you get past that barrier entry, then the world unfolds for you in many, many ways. But that’s what we’ve all paid our dues here. And because of that, our networks expanded and they continue expand, because we continue to go pay the dues, every time those dues are paid. They come back tenfold hundredfold a thousandfold every single way, they’re not scrapped. But stay focused on your primary what you’re really good at and then go higher on search out people. And I got something else to say on that what I know he wants you guys ask these questions. Well,

 

Tim Lyons  25:34

I just want to make sure Greg’s taking notes about everything that. Yeah, because right now Billy’s dropping some nice truth bombs. It’s just nice to hear somebody else say it’s not me. So I just love it. So Billy, thank you so much for that. Well,

 

Billy Brown  25:47

here’s my knowledge on this one, Greg, and I know it’s not geared toward you, but anyone else, when you’re tight with your money? Can you be open to more money can we can you receive not

 

Greg Lyons  25:59

when you’re this tight?

 

Billy Brown  26:02

Now, but if I like this money flows to me, and from me and to me, easily and readily. I love it. So

 

Greg Lyons  26:09

you gotta, you have to have an open mind. And I think that’s been my biggest transformation, all this. You know, two, three years ago, I’d say I had the first nickel I made. Now it’s a lot more open minded about different opportunities. And I think that’s been the greatest change in not only the bottom line, but in what we’re getting involved with. Now, the people that were meeting two years ago, we did not know you, I was not ready to know you. But now you’re on this podcast two years later. So that is, and I think when people listen to podcasts, whether it’s this one or others, they have to be ready to start accepting that knowledge when other people are doing. And I think I’m so lucky that I get to do this podcast, this is not work for us. This is awesome, because we get to talk to so many different people and realize every once a while may realize one of my shortcomings, which may have been a little tight with cash. But that’s okay. But this is such a treat for us to do and to meet so many different people throw

 

Billy Brown  27:07

the thought there, Greg is when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Unfortunately,

 

Greg Lyons  27:12

Tim, and if you’re watching on YouTube, right now, you’re in that single digit minority. But Tim is gloating. So much, right? Because he may have said that once or twice, in our short time here together how to? That’s for sure. That’s for sure. But Billy, you did say earlier that there will be millionaires created over the next couple of years. And you know, there is a lot of noise out there. When do you think things are going to level out? Meaning? When are people going to start normal? And were the people the media, whomever? What are we going to normalize this new investing landscape, this new lending landscape as we move into 2023, because right now money’s not cheap. Interest rates are just so high, nothing’s going to pencil, like how are people are going to kind of normalize this new landscape that we’re in,

 

Billy Brown  28:03

we end up putting our tinfoil hat on the any recession is that’s been out there has been created by the central central banking system on purpose, for that entire purpose of shifting wealth. This case there, it’s under the guise of there’s too much demand and not enough supply. So they’re trying to go to the homeostasis, trying to go back to the meaning of, you know, we want to level off supply and demand, if you don’t invest in your supply chain. The only way to do that is on demand sided crushed demand. And we know what happens there. So they’re gonna push really hard on demand side and it tries to suffocate it. Or if you push it down too far, it’s a spring back up. There’s more people in this world than ever before. They all want all the things, they all have skill sets and needs that can go benefit society, and that just translates all over the place, there’s gonna be a massive amount of need coming up very soon. So that people have those skills from our house, the building houses, their accounting, to building businesses to invest in capital, all that are going to be very much in need. I mean, you talk to anyone around here and especially the CPA world, like all the account as a CPA firms are full, they have no more room for clients, you’re gonna have to have those people it carefully make no money, you still need to throw your taxes if you still have to have those people. So that’s the spring back up. So the time between now and then, who knows? I mean, they normally last 18 months. So you have 18 months to position yourself to go find assets, whether it’s real estate businesses or whatever to go position yourself and they can cashflow right now rates as high as they are just pay cash for them and then restructure on a debt later on. You’d be set for life. The number I heard about fell on my chair. We first did this we brought in some family offices early this year to get talking about this the new normal And one of the stats was all these baby boomers that are retiring that have no Arizona pass on their businesses onto and they’re not, it’s the tune of $10 trillion value, let that sink in for a little bit $10 trillion of value of businesses that are established, are going to be for sale here. Now in the next two to three years. That can be just from your local service station to grocery stores to whatever again, lifestyle investing, real estate, whatever, that you can come in and buy now, and position yourself for a great return. And we’re not talking about things that are going to cash flow 20% 20% numbers, we’re talking like 50 6070 100%. With teams in place, they just come in and buy. And that’s the mindset there. Like before when I was growing up, it was the whack. Whack, whack, whack whack, there’s never enough, never enough. Never enough, there are enough. Now, when you had the mindset of abundance, you’re like, oh my god, stop. There’s so many opportunities out here. I’m getting distracted. The businesses, I mean, there’s just this name war, and I mean, it’s something that’d be presale for those back here your home market listening to saying, I bet you get in 30 seconds fine. No five business owners that are over 70 years old are still actively working, that would love to sell their business and get retire if you made them an offer.

 

Tim Lyons  31:28

Yeah, absolutely. I believe it’s funny you say that because when I was working 8090 100 hours a week and I was trying to find my way to wealth. I literally heard in podcasts, audiobooks, read and books, meetups, whatever, it’s equity in businesses or real estate or something like that, that’s going to really move the needle. And so what you just said is rings true, right? It’s buying a business, buying a system, buying a stream of cash flow, maximizing that cash flow, right, and then being set for life. So I love that in 10 trillion. I mean, that’s a lot of money. That’s an incredible,

 

Billy Brown  32:02

I’m asking for 1% of that just 1% of that. You’re not getting that not greedy, just 1%. So Billy, I

 

Tim Lyons  32:10

mean, I feel like this is probably just a intro episode, we’re gonna have to have you back. But to be mindful of everybody’s time, I want to transition to the last three questions of our show, Billy. The first one is something that we can hear a lot when talking to new investors, or those kind of dipping their toe in the water for the first time. They’ll say, Tim, Greg, Billy, isn’t investing in real estate risky. So Billy, if somebody came to you and said that today, how would you be spot

 

Billy Brown  32:41

investing it is inherently risky, but it’s less risky than doing nothing. And there’s a lot to say about that. If you let your dollar sit in the bank account, and let the bank go use them to go create wealth, you are losing, at least net 3% of your purchasing power per year, maybe four. It’s a net loss by design, by the way. That’s risk in itself right there. Like you know, it’s not, it’s becoming worth less every day, that’s sitting there. If you put that money in a marketplace, with sophisticated investors and sponsors know what they’re doing to get a good return for you, that has a greater spread than inflation, plus the risk of that investment, you’re gonna do just fine. Plus, obviously tax advantages. So the rate of return should always match the risk. And there so obviously, the what our market is right now, let’s we’re just going to give four, but it’s also a very passive mailbox, why’d you have to touch it, you paid monthly, quarterly, whatever it is, that’s what you want. Go do your own job, do your active income. So you go invest and create passive wealth. And eventually, that passive wealth adds up. Or you do bigger things faster, and you can exponentially grow that wealth back by giving more active or advisory board, etc.

 

Greg Lyons  34:02

That’s good. I love that, Billy, this one. The second question is really good one for you. And it’s from Robert Kiyosaki. And he said, savers are losers, and debtors are winners. So I need you to put the lending hat back on and what does that mean to you?

 

Billy Brown  34:20

So, in a 32nd, answer, lending is the largest systems best created on debt. Every dollar in existence is borrowed dollars in go look that up in our fiat currency. You have to because it’s that they’re printing more and more of it, that value that purchasing power is going down debt when you go secured against a cash flow producing asset, business, whatever, hedges against the falling dollar, because now you’re bringing that this future dollars and they’re just it’s now through that debt versus in the future. That is a very complicated answer into this under Stan, once I understood it got away from the Dave Ramsey world, save, save, save, save, save, get out of debt, good debt, good debt, to use debt to create wealth. That’s when my world exploded. And we’re not talking and I borrowed like, Where does credit card debt replace it’s the debt is secure from people because they want to be in a debt position with you. And you get the upside of the equity, as you grow this, whatever it is asset, what it is, you get to create the keep the Delta in or paying down the debt. And that’s all they want. They want that secured return that bank, that other lender, the private individuals, like, they want that guaranteed bond when they go live off for 568 percent or whatever it is going to be. And you keep the equity generated. So once you understand that model, how that’s created, and Trump said is best and I think Kisaki does this as well as like, I want as much debt as possible, how much you’re going to lend it to me for 810 12%. How much you got? Because I know what that number is, I know create arbitrage between what our borrowing at and what are that we’re turning, I need it. It’s fantastic. Love

 

Tim Lyons  36:09

that, Billy. That’s actually gonna tee up the final question really, really nice. And that’s from a de facto mentor, Jim Rohn. To Greg and I. And he says that a formal education will make you a living and a self education will make you a fortune. Yeah,

 

Billy Brown  36:27

absolutely. Go

 

Tim Lyons  36:29

ahead. Go ahead. T one T that went up nice for us.

 

Billy Brown  36:32

Oh, wow. The whole episode of That was so yes, I was a solid B minus student in college. I had a degree in marketing. And I think it took two courses and marketing and for college. And the rest of them were like who the hell knows. So yeah, I got aggressive, my security belly is crap. What I learned was from others to solve problems. And when sought after experts that paid them is or masterminds or events or networking lunches, whatever it is, to absorb their knowledge, ask them questions and get started solving these problems together. And the great thing about entrepreneurship and capitalism is you can actually solve people’s problems, they will pay you for it and everyone becomes wealthy, mind blowing, and you can solve the fastest way to wealth as the solvers people’s problems. They Russell Gray says that as I consider trying to solve poor people’s problems, we will they won’t pay you for if you saw rich people’s problems, they will compensate you for because their time is worth more you go solve that problem. It’s it could be a seven figure payday for you. And they’ll introduce you to other friends because you solve so much problem for them. So yeah, so that’s the self education, that self awareness. Wow. Like how can I go use my talents, abilities and skill sets to go serve others in a way that I get high compensated for lowly compensated but highly compensated for?

 

Tim Lyons  37:51

Yeah, I mean, this is a quote that you get paid in direct proportion to the level of complexity of problems you solve or something like that, Billy, I have no, I didn’t do much justice. But you know, when it comes to self education, I mean, that’s how Greg and I got started, right? I mean, there is no course there is no college degree. It’s just, it’s getting in the right rooms. It’s doing your own education. It’s reading the books, it’s mentoring, it’s coaching. It’s masterminding. It’s going to conferences, it’s working for free for a year for somebody adding value to them so that you can gain all the knowledge that you can. And there’s just so many ways to do it. But I mean, that’s why I just love this whole space. And for the amount of growth that Greg and I have had over the last two, two and a half years. It’s been from people like you Billy and from other people. So willing to really be on a higher rung on the ladder than us and have one hand on that higher rung and one hand kind of down below picking us up. Right so. And that’s what Greg and I hope to do for others. So Billy, how can people get in touch with you if they’d like to learn more about Billy brown belt lending? About the golf sanctuary about anything? Yeah, there’s

 

Billy Brown  39:03

some places just go to our website set up and we’ll go reach me out. It’s Billy brown dot m e like Mary Edwards, Billy brown.me. And then go connect with me like yeah, lending an EEG for commercial lending if you want to look at investments. If you want to look at the doll sanctuary there as a member as we as we grow into future investments, like limitless now we’re love to connect with you. Yeah, it’s been a wild ride last couple years. And all I can say is it’s the fast forward and what’s gonna next three to five years gonna look like it’s gonna be unbelievable. absolutely unbelievable. It’s, but you got to take those steps. You gotta take those risks and just know that you got to you got to trust your hustle and trust your tribe.

 

Greg Lyons  39:42

If people do get in touch with you, Billy listeners, please let Billy know that you came from the passive income brothers are cityside capital. I would love that free bucket of balls. Next time I’m at sanctuary. Okay, that’s all I’m really looking for an extra 25 balls to hit. That’s it.

 

Tim Lyons  39:59

Done Well listen, Billy, we’re gonna have to have you back on my man. I am also I’m grateful for your time and to be in the same circle with you. So thank you again for coming on making the time for us. That does it here for this episode of the passive income brothers podcast and we look forward to serving you again next week. Thank you for listening to another episode of the passive income brothers podcast. We would be grateful for your support of our podcast by giving our show a five star rating and review and subscribing to our show on your favorite podcast platform. Don’t forget to take inspired action after listening to this show, so that you can start building out your passive income streams. Finally, head on over to cityside cap.com to connect with us and find out more information about how to get started passively investing in real estate